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Blue Jays’ Ricky Romero still a work in progress: Griffin

It was a surprising call-up and an unlikely start for Ricky Romero Friday at the Rogers Centre. It wasn’t scheduled to happen this soon. The 28-year-old Blue Jays left-hander remains a work in progress, with one single minor-league start under his belt on the way to a necessary rebuild. But the club decided he was ready to begin the next chapter of his career. The results this night were mixed.

Facing Mariners ace Felix Hernandez, replacing the disabled Josh Johnson, Romero lasted just four innings in a 4-0 loss. It started out great. After three innings, looking re-energized and confident, Romero went out for the fourth and threw 37 pitches, marked by two visits by medical staff — one for a callous and the other when his left forearm got in the way on a hard one-hop comebacker by Jesus Montero. But the best news, and all that really matters to Romero, is that he’s back.

“I think I just lost control of the fastball,” Romero said. “It almost seemed like I was spiking it. One of the things that we’ve been working on is pitching down in the zone. I think at times I was a little bit too down. I was trying to get it up and couldn’t. Obviously it could have been much worse, but I wish I would have got us deeper into the game, especially with the way the bullpen’s been worked.”

It was a difficult 24 hours for Romero, starting Thursday morning in Tampa, Fla., until his head hit the pillow at 2 a.m., then being stopped by a cop on the way to breakfast Friday morning, held in his car on the road for some 15 minutes. Then came the emotion of entering the Jays clubhouse, welcomed by teammates. Oh, and the game. It added up to likely hitting the wall as the adrenaline rush wore off.

“I feel good, my arm feels good,” Romero said, denying he may have needed more time in the minors. “I don’t know how many more you can use out there. If I have a good inning in that fourth inning it carries on into the fifth, sixth, who knows.

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“It’s been a long, long, long past 24 hours from getting the call, to flying in here late (Thursday) night. It’s been a mess. My girlfriend was flying to Tampa when I get called up so she had to get off the plane and hop on another plane so it’s been long.”

The Jays have avoided any comparisons to a similar event from the past, the Roy Halladay rebuild, for the obvious reason of not putting pressure on their current down-but-not-out starter. But the relationship between the reconstructing Romero and his mentor, minor-league instructor Dane Johnson, bears a striking similarity to that of their former ace Halladay and his mentor, the late Mel Queen.

Nobody is suggesting that Romero will bounce back to match Halladay’s career numbers. That’s the very comparison the Jays are trying to avoid. But the most important realization for the L.A.-born lefty’s rebuilt psyche is that he’s back in the majors boasting a new outlook and a new delivery.

The 50-year-old Johnson was handed a heavy responsibility. On March 27, the day after Romero was given the devastating news of his demotion following another failed spring training start vs. the Pirates, Johnson, a former second-round pick by the Jays in 1984, was handed the important assignment of fixing what was broken with the two-time opening day starter. He showed tough love.

Every day in April, from 9:30 a.m. to noon, in addition to his normal duties seeing kid pitchers at the Jays’ extended spring camp, Johnson and Romero worked together. Much has been made of the more publicized Romero fixes — a direct line to the plate and hands that never are raised above his head at any time — but there were other factors just as important, many involving repetition of a daily routine to promote a better focus on the task and fewer distractions.

“Taking a step back and breaking down throwing programs,” Johnson described the most difficult part of the rebuild. “Breaking down where the ball should come from, how he’s going to cross the T’s and dot the I’s in his throwing programs and how he was going to work around all the things that needed to be implemented in his delivery. They came pretty quick.”

Much of the change and the ability to convince Romero of the need for the change came in the video room, finding old tape of him as a kid pro, comparing it to success in 2011 and failure in 2012.

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“I went back to 2005-06,” Johnson explained. “I broke out the analog equipment. We got those tapes, not necessarily implementing them, we saw an explosive young kid at that particular time who got out over his front side (to) drive the ball with real great extension. That reminded him of a lot of things when he got into his throwing programs of what he could do, what he has to do.”

Romero believes that despite his negative acceptance of his March demotion that the bottom line is he has become a better pitcher working with Johnson, understanding his problem and accepting the fixes offered. But he also knows there is no place for him other than the Jays clubhouse.

“It feels great, the warm welcome that I got from every single guy around this clubhouse felt really good,” Romero said. “It feels good to be home. It means a lot. Everyone’s happy to see me. I know it’s been a tough April for the team, but that’s baseball. Hopefully we’re able to pick it up.”

If there is any solace to accepting the loss, it should be recalled that in Halladay’s first game back after working with Queen, July 2, 2001, Doc allowed six runs in just 2.1 innings facing the Red Sox, yielding six hits, with three walks and one strikeout. And that turned out pretty well.

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